spanned by bridges of snow, while huge unmelted avalanches lie in its bed below, cascades tumble from a hundred heights, while peaks, some dark, some snowy, many thousand feet high almost close overhead, and seem to jut into the sky.” The valley of the Inn is bounded by lofty mountain ranges on both sides, and is of an average breadth of two to six miles. It is highly cultivated, and a good deal of Indian corn is grown, the little patches of agricultural land pushing up the slopes of the steep ground as they overflow the valley. [Illustration: KUFSTEIN (TYROL)] The Brenner Pass, as one of the gateways of the Alps, is known by name to many who could not place it geographically did their lives hang on the chance. Numberless military expeditions have wound their way through these precipices and crags, beginning with the wild tribes of the ages before history has detailed records, on to the days of the Romans, who made the road through the pass. Theodoric, Odoacer, and Attila all made use of this pass, and some attribute the origin of the name to Brennus, the Gaul who harried the city of Rome. Not only was the pass the highway for armies, but for trade and bands of merchants, whose lives indeed in the Middle Ages were seldom less adventurous than those of recognised men of war. They poured their caravans with rich freight through this defile. Traversed now by a railway, the modern traveller has the advantage of being able to sit at ease and enjoy the scenery while the powerful locomotives (often two) do the straining and panting to the highest altitude at 4600 feet, for here there is no tunnel to mar the view or choke the traveller with briquette-smoke, as on so many Italian railways. The railway curves and curves again in its ascent up the incline, only having recourse to very brief tunnels and rock cuttings. The line is part of that from Berlin to Rome and is owned by a private French-Italian company. The station at the summit level is called Brenner, and to the south of it is Sterzing. The ascent from Innsbruck to Brenner strikes any one who sees it for the first time as fine, but when he has penetrated further, and explored the descent from Brenner to Brixen, he forgets all about it in the much grander scenery unrolled before him. Sterzing is celebrated in the annals of the Tyrolese for the desperate fight for liberty in 1806. The little town stands high and is situated in an open place. It is overlooked by a castle, and it may be remarked that castles, mostly ruined, are seen in inaccessible and desolate spots all over the Tyrol. Their number is legion and hundreds may be counted.